Rocky road to open access - Open access - Research Information

"It’s no secret that technology has thrown scholarly publishing into a state of flux. The digitisation of content, easy-to-use software, and the ever-growing opportunity to spread your words across the Internet has prompted academics and publishers to reassess how research is published. For many in the UK, open access is the answer, as indicated by recent requirements from the nation’s two most significant providers of public funding, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Higher Education Funding Councils for England (HEFCE). In short, each has recently introduced policies for UK research organisations to make published outputs openly accessible. However, the road to open access is anything but short. ‘We always said this would be a journey and not an overnight switch,’ highlights Mark Thorley, chair of the RCUK Research Outputs Network and head of Science Information for the Natural Environment Research Council. ‘We’ve seen issues over the cost of implementation, administrative processes and also policy compliance reporting,’ he adds. ‘But we’re also seeing an increasing volume of research available as open access, so the policy is making a difference.’ For Thorley, open access is a no-brainer ..."